WALT   DISNEY   CREATES

                                A sea battle

     A high point in Walt Disney's production of Jules Vernes's classic
     20,000 leagues Under the Sea is a fantastic fight between the crew
     of the submarine Nautilus (left) and a giant squid - a sea monster
     modeled after actual squids that prowl the depths, fight with
     sperm whales. Disney's squid, if alive, would weigh 20 tons. It is
     probably the biggest special-effects creature Hollywood has ever
     spawned - making even King Kong seem a pygmy by comparison.

 
Squid's tentacle, 40 feet long, stabs down the steps of the submarine's
main hatch and almost grabs the commander, Captain Nemo (James
Mason). Nemo orders all hands topside to join battle with the monster.

Coming to grips with the squid, the Nautilus' crew advances warily. The movie
monster has eight arms, each weighing 175 lbs., plus two slightly larger tentacles.
A push-button control board operated by 24 men put it through terrifying gyrations.
In losing struggle, Captain Nemo tries to harpoon the creature. Disney's
squid is composed of rubber, spring steel, flexible tubing, glass cloth,
Laminac and Lucite, composing altogether a "squirming horror of a fish."		       Hacking at arms and tentacles with axes, crew fails to down attacker. Squid's feel-
      ers were controlled by wires for vertical motion; by electricity for horizontal motion.
      Bursts of air along interior tubes caused the monster's realistic "convulsive writhings."
 

Photographed by EARL THEISEN and ANTHONY UGRIN

        "A creature of darkness in a world of eternal night"; The clammy, seaweed-
       colored squid (right) goggles it's yellow, bloodshot eyes as it encircles Captain Nemo.